Friday, July 23, 2010 Suspected toy theft has event organizers asking for donations.
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Courts
Choking bus driver nets no time in jail Bus drivers outraged, saying victim traumatized. by Amy Steele asteele@mrtimes.com
A 39-year-old man who choked a female bus driver so hard he lifted her right out of her seat received a threemonth conditional sentence and nine months probation Thursday. The sentence has outraged other bus drivers, who were hoping for a stiffer penalty to deter future assaults against bus drivers. Bus driver Christine Morrison described the sentence as “totally unacceptable.” “This guy actually choked our operator to the point where she was passed out and blacked out on the floor and he gets three months of house arrest and nine months of probation,” she said. “These are things we face every single day.” Morrison said she’s been assaulted twice. Once when she missed a bus stop a man hit her over her wrist with his umbrella. “I don’t think there’s an operator, and we have 3,700 members, who hasn’t had some kind of attack on them whether it be verbal or physical. Spitting is a huge issue for us,” she said. Morrison said she wishes it would have been a stiffer sentence that sent a stronger message to the public. “If those two passengers hadn’t been there who knows what would have happened,” she said. Court heard that Colin Moore only stopped choking the driver after two passengers pulled him off of her. The assault occurred in Maple Ridge on the 701 Coquitlam Centre bus at 248 Street and Dewdney Trunk Road on the evening March 5, 2009. The incident began when another bus driver warned the female driver that Moore was drunk and causing a disturbance on his bus. While the driver was relaying that information Moore began banging on the doors of the bus and the other driver told the female driver not to let him on. Moore then asked
for directions and the female bus driver gave him some. He thanked her, cursed the other driver and then left. When the female bus driver was letting two other passengers onto the bus Moore reappeared and came onto the bus. He began screaming at her for giving faulty directions. He then lunged closer to her, grabbed her by the throat with both hands and pushed her back into her seat. She tried to radio for help but couldn’t do so because he was squeezing her throat so hard. She was eventually able to push an alarm button. The two passengers she had let on attempted to pull Moore off her but he continued to choke her, lifting her out of her seat. Finally the passengers pulled Moore off of her and got him off the bus. Once outside the bus Moore grabbed one of the passenger’s throats and the passenger had to hit him on the head to get his hands off his throat. He managed to restrain Moore on the ground until police arrived. Police found the female bus driver on the floor of the bus crying and shaking. Port Coquitlam Provincial Court Judge Pedro de Couto called the offence “disturbing.” “Here she was just minding her own business going about getting ready to do her job to serve the public,” said de Couto. “I can’t imagine the trauma and fear she was going through (during the assault). She must have thought she was dealing with a madman.” de Couto pointed out that the woman now requires counselling, needs to take sleep medication and suffers from anxiety. He read part of her victim impact statement where the bus driver wrote: “You have changed me. I don’t know if I will be the same after all this.” Moore’s defence lawyer asked for a conditional discharge for his client but de Couto said that would send the “wrong message” to the public and could bring the respect for the justice system into disrepute.
See ATTACK, Page 13
Const. Greg Mainwood conducted a roadside breathalyzer test last Friday on the Abernethy Connector. The man blew 0.0 and was sent on his way. This was one of several checkpoints set up by local RCMP that evening. (Below) Const. Mitch Gordon questions a driver stopped at the same checkpoint before being sent on his way. Chris Campbell/TIMES
On the hunt for impaired drivers TIMES editor Chris Campbell spent an evening and early morning watching traffic officers at work.
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lone, she stood, on a deserted corner underneath Golden Ears Way. It was 2:15 a.m. and the only sounds heard were the occasional vehicles rumbling by overhead, and quiet sobbing as she waited for a ride to take her home. The woman rubbed her sleeveless arms to combat the cool night air, then wiped away some tears. Cpl. Dale Somerville, decked out in his knee-high motorcycle boots, glanced at the woman and wandered over as she continued to cry. She smiled sheepishly and looked up at the officer, as if expecting some kind words of encouragement. “I need the keys, ma’am,” he said. The smile drained from her face. She handed over the keys and the officer walked away. She continued staring down the empty road, waiting for her ride to arrive. Cpl. Somerville wasn’t being callous. He had already ensured the woman had a ride home and he needed the keys so the large black pickup truck could be towed away. But that doesn’t mean he had sympathy, either. In his job with the local RCMP’s traffic section, he was out there last Friday night and early Saturday morning trying to catch drunk drivers. He’d loved to be somewhere else, perhaps in bed sleeping, but as long as there are people driving drunk, he has a job to do. And they did it on this night. The woman standing on the deserted corner with the tears in her eyes had to watch as her male companion was handcuffed and put into a police car for blowing more than twice the legal limit. The TIMES was there in the early hours to witness a team of RCMP stake out this area under the bridge. It’s a good spot because drivers coming in all directions have nowhere to turn off before they hit the police checkpoint. If they do pull a U-turn, they get chased down.
This was the third spot of the evening/morning for the team. At 9 p.m. on Friday night they were at 287 Street and Lougheed Highway. At 7 p.m. they were on the Abernethy Connector near 203 Street. The TIMES joined the team at the first checkpoint of the night. The team set up vehicles on both sides of the road at the middle of an S-curve, with another vehicle set up down the road. That vehicle contained the Automated Licence Plate Reader, which is on loan from the regional traffic services division. The vehicle has cameras attached to the roof that scan and take a photo of each licence plate that rolls by. That information is instantly fed into a computer that searches the history of the plate. It can tell if someone is prohibited from driving or if a vehicle is stolen. The officer can then quickly relay that information to the officers stopping the vehicles. But the main goal is to catch drunk drivers and that takes a certain skill. Some of the officers call it “reasonable suspicion” and it’s based on basic observation skills and the gift of gab. When a vehicle comes to a stop, the officer leans in nice and close in order to get a whiff of the driver for alcohol. Some drivers who have been drinking try to cover up the smell by smoking a lot of cigarettes, but if an officer is suspicious they just find a way to get them out of the vehicle. Other impaired drivers are chewing giant wads of gum, but police say that doesn’t work. Still others guzzle mouthwash, but when a person has minty-fresh breath at 2 a.m., that’s a bit of a tip-off. Smell is just one technique. Officers also chat people up and listen for slurred speech or excessive babbling from a nervous driver. They also study people’s movements, such as covering their mouths when they talk.
See IMPAIRED, Page 3
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